Softbank-owned British semiconductor designer Arm has sued global chip giant Qualcomm which makes Snapdragon processers along with startup Nuvia (acquired by Qualcomm for $1.4 billion) over chip design trademark violations.

In the lawsuit filed in a US federal district court in Delaware, Arm said that both Qualcomm and Nuvia violated the licenses by using Arm’s processor designs and architecture.

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“To accelerate its processor development efforts, Qualcomm spent over $1 billion to acquire Nuvia, a start-up led by senior engineers previously from Apple and Google that licensed Arm technologies to develop high-performance processor cores for semiconductor chips,” read the lawsuit.

Qualcomm is accused of having Nuvia violate its Arm licences throughout this process, which led to Arm terminating the licences and ordering Qualcomm and Nuvia to stop using and destroy any Arm-based technology created as a result of the licencing.

“Undeterred, Qualcomm and Nuvia have continued working on Nuvia’s implementation of Arm architecture in violation of Arm’s rights as the creator and licensor of its technology”, the lawsuit said.

Further, Qualcomm’s conduct indicates that it has already and further intends to use Arm’s trademarks to advertise and sell the resulting products in the US, even though those products are unlicensed, it added.

Arm now demands that Qualcomm and Nuvia cease utilising and destroying the relevant Nuvia technology as well as refraining from using its trademarks in an inappropriate manner with their connected goods.

Additionally, Arm is requesting compensation for the unauthorised use of its trademarks in conjunction with semiconductor chips that utilise the pertinent Nuvia technology.

Qualcomm has violated the conditions of the Arm licence agreement, according to a statement from Arm to The Registrar, by carrying on with work under the licences that were cancelled.

Qualcomm responded to Arm’s lawsuit, saying “Arm’s lawsuit marks an unfortunate departure from its longstanding, successful relationship with Qualcomm”.

“Arm’s complaint ignores the fact that Qualcomm has broad, well-established license rights covering its custom-designed CPUs, and we are confident those rights will be affirmed,” the company said.

(inputs from IANS)